Two months after the liberation of Berlin two hundred people gathered for a memorial service in the British sector of Berlin, in the cleaned-up ruins of the Pestalozzistrasse Synagogue. In a letter, an American GI describes this service to his wife, saying it was “impressive in the extreme,” “everyone wept,” and “one of the men switched back on the Eternal Light.” The ceremony began with Lewandowski’s setting of the Shehechiyanu, a blessing to celebrate special occasions and to give thanks for unusual experiences, then chanted by 73-year old Chief Cantor Leo Gollanin (1872 – 1948), who had survived the war in Berlin.